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Edition

Chairperson’s Corner

By Jon Wu

International News, March 2023

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Welcome to the March 2023 issue of International News. After years of less travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic, people have started travelling again and actuaries are doing more business and meeting in person.

Even with this good progress, we are still facing challenges in 2023, including the following:

  • The effects of climate change.
  • The potential of an economic recession.
  • The lingering effects from long COVID.
  • The uncertainty of war causing food shortages and distribution inequity.
  • The continuation of high interest rates in the U.S., resulting in major currency devaluation of other nations.
  • The implementation of new accounting standards and solvency margins.

I would encourage you to visit the SOA Research Institute to find studies on some of the challenges mentioned above.

If you have a suggestion for a research topic or study, you can contact the research institute directly or even contact the council members of the International Section. We would like to hear your ideas and recommendations. The International Section Council members are also working with other professional sections to conduct joint research. We will report back once this study is complete.

The International Section will be leading discussions and presentations on solvency standards in various jurisdictions at the 2023 Spring Boot Camp, May 1–2 in Chicago. We hope that you can participate in this in-person event. As you may know, most of the countries outside U.S., Canada and EU zones are going through a lot of changes in implementing new accounting standards (IFRS 17) for deriving insurance liabilities and redefining their solvency regimes.

We also encourage you to submit articles for publication in International News. Our goal is to share our experience on our actuarial journey with each other.

As always, we are looking to recruit volunteers for our international activities. Please reach out to me or the members of the section council, if you are interested in volunteering or have any questions or comments. We hope to hear from you soon.

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the editors, or the respective authors’ employers.

Jon Wu, FSA, MAAA, CERA, is chair of the SOA International Section, a member of SOA CFE exam track committee, and a member of ORSA/ERM committee of American Academy of Actuaries (AAA). He can be reached at jzwu101@gmail.com.